Tricks + Treats: Graphic Soaps by Sarah Rhodes

Hi, It's Sarah from Team Rhodes Weddings! I am going to share a simple soap DIY with you this morning. Enjoy!

Shopping list:

– clear glycerin (found at craft stores) or you can recycle clear soaps of your own.– essential oils for lovely smelling soaps– a small milk carton– tracing paper, book pages, transparency paper, any kind of paper, or pretty fabric squares.

Have your artwork to put in soaps ready before you start! Definitely use permanent pens to avoid ink bleeding. Measure the bottom of your milk carton, and cut squares slightly smaller than your measurement – you don't want paper sticking out of your soap. 🙂

Over low heat, melt your glycerin in a pot on your stove. (If you get the craft store glycerin, use about 4-6 squares per bar.)

Add your oils!

Once all the glycerin is melted, pour it into your milk carton. While it's still liquid, place your square of paper into the carton too. Use a spoon to try and get the paper to stick in the middle of the soap, and don't let it float to the top.

Put the whole carton in your freezer for quick setting! Once the soap is solid in the carton, you're ok to start on your next soap bar. Repeat all the steps and just pour the next batch over top of the first!

Once you're done with all of them, and they're all solid, then tear off the carton around the bars. Use a non-serrated knife to cut the bars apart – they come apart easily! Anddd you're done. So easy! These are also great for little random Christmas gifts. (I start planning for Christmas gifts in September… sorry!)

Thanks, Sarah! This looks like so much fun! I love that you can use your own artwork! I can't wait to try this… perfect for Holiday gifts. XO. elsie

Melissa – good question, because there is a difference between plain glycerin and soap glycerin. At the craft stores, the glycerin will be labeled as soap glycerin, and already has the cleansing additive in it. It gets really sudsy!

you can use anything that will hold hot wax! I like milk cartons because you can just tear them apart, but if you use something you can’t tear off, you can just grab a knife and wedge it out pretty easily, and buff out the knife marks 🙂

what happens to the paper in the soap? does it tear into little peices when the soap gets thinner? What is the tracing paper for do you trace a picture and us the tracing paper in the soap? I really like this alot just curious about what happens to the art work.

In that spirit, let’s talk about stars and Hermes, shall we? But not the stars or the Hermes that you’d probably assume. What’s the fun in looking at Victoria Beckham’s zillionth Birkin when you can go a bit off the beaten path with reality-star-turned-booze-tycoon Bethenny Frankel and singer Alanis Morisette and their lovely Hermes Evelyne Crossbody Bags?

you can use anything that will hold hot wax! I like milk cartons because you can just tear them apart, but if you use something you can’t tear off, you can just grab a knife and wedge it out pretty easily, and buff out the knife marks

Why in the heck is it so expensive then???!! Seriously, if it only takes 1″ of soap that’s just crazy! I’m dinlfeteiy going to try this, I have a few empty foaming bottles my daughter likes to play with. Thanks!Oh and thanks for dropping by our cafe hop today. I’m here to follow you back :)Happy Thursday!

Elsie, I love your blog so much, you cannot fathom! I’m rather certain I used stumbleupon to find this, and I’m not sure which DIY I came to first (it was SO very many months ago). I went crazy for christmas and did something creative for all of my friends, and I couldn’t have done it without your help!

This soap making project sparked so many cool ideas. I tried this for my boyfriend for a valentine’s day present. I didn’t use a drawing or a pretty square of fabric though… I used pieces of ribbon, decorative brads with the little arms plucked off, and tiny felt hearts. It was adorable! I wanted to start doing soaps like this more often, but since I buy milk in jugs instead of cartons, it just seemed a little uneconomical. I found that muffin tins and PVC pipe make really good molds! When I used the muffin tins, i was a bit worried I wouldn’t be able to get the bars out, but I just flipped it upside down, tapped it a few times, and the bar would fall right out! and with PVC pipe, you can slice the soap for nice even bars.